Author: A. Barrett Seaman, President and founder of Choose Responsibility, Editor of Time magazine
On this particular page of the website the author discusses the idea of alcohol licensing. The idea is that in order to start drinking you would have to go through something similar to Driver’s Ed, and pass a test at the end. The idea is to encourage education about the dangers and consequences of alcohol ahead of time. Too much alcohol education takes place after the fact. The class would provide new material regarding safe drinking habits instead of simply pressing abstaining from drinking. The result of the drinking education would be a provisional license for 18-20 year-olds.
The Choose Responsibility foundation is in favor of lowering the drinking age to 18. They have many arguments in favor of the change. However, I found this particular page most interesting. Instead of simply presenting the arguments, the site came up with some new ideas regarding education about the dangers of alcohol. It is certainly an intriguing idea. We would never even consider simply allowing 16-year-olds to start driving without passing the driving test, so why shouldn’t we require a drinking license? Education will not completely solve the problem, but it would certainly be a step in the right direction.
Be sure to check out more of the Choose Responsibility website, they have lots of facts and statistics regarding drinking, as well as some more arguments for lowering the drinking age. You may have heard the foundation mentioned in some of the videos on this page. John McCardell, president of Middlebury College, who argues for lowering the drinking age, has been involved with Choose Responsibility as well.
Author: David J. Hanson, Ph.D.
In his book Hanson dedicates a chapter to the questioning of alcohol education. He compares the effectiveness of different styles of instruction in the 15 years preceding the book’s publication (1996). Specifically, he compares the “drinking responsibly” education to the abstinence approach. In his analysis he declares that responsible drinking education has shown more success and is more reasonable. Prior to his chapter on education Hanson discusses a history of American attitudes towards alcohol.Although he does not specifically stress a lowering of the drinking age, I thought the alcohol education theme related to the website discussed above. Hanson specifically references the prohibition, stating that it was unsuccessful and resulted in a black market. This underground effect is what we are starting to witness in underage drinking, under 21-year-olds are still drinking, but they are taking it into the basements. The drinking occurring “underground” does not always reflect safe practices. For this reason, whether or not the drinking age is lowered, we need to consider implementing responsible drinking education.
Hanson has been researching and writing about alcohol for many years. If you would like to check out some of his more recent ideas about alcohol, check out his website: http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/index.html
Author: Ian Brennan
I was excited to find a very current discussion of the issue of alcohol education and underage drinking. I had some concerns that the episode would glorify underage drinking, however, it definitely focused on the dangers and personal image consequences. I found the opinions on awareness the most relevant to our issue. Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison), the glee team’s coach emphasizes drinking responsibly as opposed to abstinence. He recognizes that some of his students will likely continue to drink, so he encourages safety. At the closing of the episode, he asks them to stop drinking, however he admits that this may be an unrealistic request, so he passes around a pledge form. On the top of the form is his cell phone number, while handing these out Mr. Schuester states, “That’s my cell phone number. Part of your pledge is that if you do slip up, no matter where you are or what time of the night it is, I want you to call me to drive you home.” Alcohol awareness is something we will always need no matter what the drinking age is. I propose that with an increase in education as well as a decrease in the minimum drinking age will result in the safest and fairest conditions.
Below you can find the full Glee episode linked from hulu. Even if you have seen it before, consider watching it again while considering these new insights. The show commonly focuses on controversial topics regarding teens; it presents these topics in a fun and sometimes educational way. This particular episode focused on alcohol, but if you enjoy it consider checking out some of the other episodes! If you are a glee fanatic let me know what you thought about this episode. There are tons of television shows that discuss alcohol awareness, let me know if you think there are any others worth mentioning.
This is an interesting concept, but I have two suggestions:
ReplyDelete1- If the drinking age (with license) is lowered to 18, the legal age to buy alcohol should remain 21, this way the only place available for most licensed young people will be at restaurants, bars, and clubs which would be a much safer drinking environment than house parties and basements.
2- Since most people under the age of 21 seem very content to break underage drinking laws, there's little incentive not to break drinking license laws and continue as they have been. But, since most people aged under 21 are still financial dependents to their parents or guardians, we can switch the pressure from the government to parents who can more actively encourage (or force) their children to attend the class and get a license, by offering a tax break to parents whose children take and pass the class. The incremental tax revenue from the new market of licensed drinkers 18-21 at bars, clubs, and restaurants would either close the gap created by the parental tax incentive or even still turn a profit for the government while providing a safer environment in which to drink.
Thanks for the input Jory! Definitely some good ideas. I do think we need to put more pressure on parents to educate their kids. In many states it is legal to drink in your own home with parental consent. More parents should really take advantage of this and allow their kids to try drinking for the first time in a safe environment, and learn their limits!
ReplyDeleteThe tax break is a great idea, there are similar laws for driving (tax breaks for safe drivers).
In regards to ignoring the licensing laws - the idea of licensing, I feel, is more an emphasis on exposure to the education needed.